Iranian Journal of Management Studies
Volume:15 Issue: 3, Summer 2022

In this paper, a set of sustainability criteria is introduced and a hybrid Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method is performed in order to identify and classify a set of criteria for selecting a project portfolio. Proposed criteria based on fuzzy DEMATEL technique in an uncertain environment  are assessed to determine the relation among all of the criteria. Moreover, ISM method is used to level the proposed criteria which are effective in the process of selecting the project or not. The results obtained from the proposed method demonstrates that profit, cost, soil, atmosphere, energy, waste and risk are the most effective criteria in selecting project portfolio, especially in construction project selection. Furthermore, environmental issues play an important role in the selection of project portfolio while social issues are not as much significant as others. Technical requirement, water, security, and public utility are less effective criteria in selecting project portfolio. Besides, biodiversity, social integration, and responsibility criteria are the most effected criteria in selecting project portfolio.

Conflict among stakeholders may be a barrier to the progress of projects and a major cause for significant waste in capital. This research explores modeling and analysis of a conflict among the stakeholders of a high-technology corporation. The interaction among the stakeholders is modeled as a game. In this research, we employ a system’s engineering approach for modeling and analysis of this intra-organizational conflict, using Graph Model for Conflict Resolution (GMCR+). It is an advanced methodology driven from conflict analysis, which has routes in non-cooperative game theory with a non-quantitative approach. This article focuses on a conflict among three parties. The socially optimal solution happens when one player, who has the technical knowledge, finds another investor. Using sensitivity analysis, we find an alternative, more favorable solution to reach a new agreement in setting up two plants (instead of seven) in Tehran and Kermanshah, launching the project with the remaining capital. We demonstrate that taking the case to court does not result in a favorable outcome for the players.

This study aims to determine the various factors influencing and attempting to measure the employee retention , especially in Indian firms, as employees are the most crucial asset for any organization. Even though most organizations today are technology-enabled, human resources are needed to handle modern equipment. One of the most prominent challenges organizations face regarding human resource (HR) planning is retaining good, skilled, and efficient employees for long. To achieve productivity in the competitive world, capable and efficient employees must utilize available resources effectively. In this study, the sample was collected from various employees of different Indian firms by a self-administered survey questionnaire based on the random sampling method (RSM). The analysis was done by statistical calculations in SPSS and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in AMOS 20. The findings affirm that organizations today need to develop a strong bonding between management and employee, create a good communicative environment, and encourage employees to work as a team without discrimination. Furthermore, this study also provides various recommendations for HR managers to give respect along with the value and appreciation, provide a healthy work environment and job design, place employees according to their skills, and provide career growth opportunities to retain a quality workforce by making them committed and engaged.

Although the private sector is recognized as one principal component of the economic structure of nations, it is not in place in the economy of Iran. However, according to the resource curse theory, this so-called political and rich-resourced economy should move to a more diversified economy. This study aims to investigate the acceptance procedures through which the shift can be facilitated and accelerated. All in all, 19 interviews were conducted with the private sector practitioners and faculty members to collect data under the domination of the constructive grounded theory. The results of this study indicate that the tripolar of accountable government, observer civil society, and ethical private sector should be formed so that the effective application of strategies could benefit from “the acceptance nexus,” i.e., legitimacy, participation, support, and communication through consciousness, assuming responsibility, and communication management. By providing some must-do practices for the “agency” of government, civil society, and the private sector in the current institutional “structure,” this research contributes to the current understanding of acceptance. Conducting a middle-range theory, this study tries to shed more light on the behavioral contributions in the problem-solving processes by providing an emerging view of the acceptance in the terrain of the private sector.

This paper aimed to test the influences of perceived usefulness on travelers’ willingness to create user-generated content (UGC) through attitudes toward social media, travel planning attitude, and electronic word of mouth, as mediating variables, and compare the proposed model results between two culturally and geographically distinct nations. The research model and the interactions among the constructs were tested and validated through structural equation modeling. Randomly selected qualified responses from Mexican (N=192) and Taiwanese (N=200) participants were analyzed. The comparative analysis of statistical results showed that in Mexico, travel planning attitude does not directly influence travelers’ involvement in UGC. Instead, choosing a travel destination is the reason why Mexicans would generate content. However, in Taiwan the non-significant direct relationship is between electronic word of mouth and user-generated content. Despite the massive social media affect in Taiwan, reading and collecting information online is not the reason for Taiwanese to get involved in providing online content. Research findings assist the destination marketers and tourism stakeholders to identify essential elements that positively motivate and inspire travelers’ intention to share opinions through social media in order to promote or adjust plans and adopt compatible strategies to successfully form and influence travelers’ decision-making behavior.

The Markowitz-based portfolio selection turns to an NP-hard problem when considering cardinality constraints. In this case, existing exact solutions like quadratic programming may not be efficient to solve the problem. Many researchers, therefore, used heuristic and metaheuristic approaches in order to deal with the problem. This work presents Asexual Reproduction Optimization (ARO), a model-free metaheuristic algorithm inspired by the asexual reproduction, in order to solve the portfolio optimization problem including cardinality constraint to ensure the investment in a given number of different assets and bounding constraint to limit the proportions of fund invested in each asset. This is the first time that this relatively new metaheuristic is applied in the field of portfolio optimization, and we show that ARO results in better quality solutions in comparison with some of the well-known metaheuristics stated in the literature. To validate our proposed algorithm, we measured the deviation of the obtained results from the standard efficient frontier. We report our computational results on a set of publicly available benchmark test problems relating to five main market indices containing 31, 85, 89, 98, and 225 assets. These results are used in order to test the efficiency of our proposed method in comparison to other existing metaheuristic solutions. The experimental results indicate that ARO outperforms Genetic Algorithm (GA), Tabu Search (TS), Simulated Annealing (SA), and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) in most of test problems. In terms of the obtained error, by using ARO, the average error of the aforementioned test problems is reduced by approximately 20 percent of the minimum average error calculated for the above-mentioned algorithms.

While concepts such as organizational intelligence and critical thinking are continually studied by different scholars, Organizational Stupidity (OS) has received less attention in academic researches. This conceptual study investigated OS and different characteristics of it to present a model for OS. To this end, a combined method including Grounded Theory (GT) and Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) was adopted. The qualitative part was comprised of face-to-face in-depth interviews with 12 respondents who worked in Iran Revenue & Agency (IRA), Isfahan Province Branch. A snowball sampling was employed in which the early participants were asked to introduce other people with information about OS. The data collected from interviews was analyzed using open coding, axial coding, and selective coding, and the conceptual model of OS was proposed using the GT assumptions (i.e., casual conditions, intervening factors, contextual factors, strategies, and consequences of the OS). In the quantitative part, the proposed model was restructured using ISM. For this purpose, two questionnaires were deigned, and the experts of senior faculty of academics (including 8 individuals) were asked to answer them. The proposed model shows the main reasons for OS by level of importance, and predicts the strategies for reducing the OS and its consequences. This model can be used to plan strategies for managing and reducing OS in organizations.

The clustering of cryptocurrencies as an emerging field in investment management is the main topic of this research. Applying the information-based distance matrices, we clustered the 30 most valuable cryptocurrencies. Then, we identified the most influential clustering by the concept of Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) and the centrality measures of graph theory. A second-order clustering, which is defined as the clustering of hierarchical clusterings, was applied to cluster 56 dendrograms. Using the most influential clustering, we identified the main clusters of cryptocurrencies and sub-clusters. The results showed that the clustering composition of cryptocurrencies changed at the period I (before COVID-19) and II (pandemic time).

Absenteeism management is considered as designing, planning, and controlling employee’s activities to increase the welfare of employees and to reduce work absence. Since the studies on absenteeism management are limited, the goal of this paper is to develop a model for absenteeism management in Iran Revenue Tax Agency (IRTA). In this study, the management of employee absenteeism is analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively (Mixed Method). In the qualitative part of this study, a non-probability method and a dependent heterogeneous method are used for collecting data. Also 18 in-depth and semi-structured interviews are performed with organizational experts and employees who have been frequently absent from their work in IRTA. Furthermore, the collected data from the qualitative part is analyzed using MAXQDA software. In the quantitative section, the absenteeism management model is presented based on Grounded Theory (GT) assumptions and in the quantitative part, 314 questionnaires are collected by using the random sampling method. In addition, the data were analyzed by Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) methods by using SPSS and Amos software, respectively. The GT model of employee absenteeism management is confirmed in the quantitative section. The results of this model contain five parts of the GT method that are: 1) Casual conditions such as negative learning and dysfunctional control, career management problems, and lack of well-being, 2) Interfering factors: unexpected incidents, demographic factors, staff history, and personal values, 3) Contextual factors that are: cultural and biological issues, external institutions, political interventions, and partisanship of legal capacities, 4) Strategies for reducing the employee absenteeism such as considering employee expectations from management, creating a culture of calmness, clarity, support, and monitoring people in all levels and career stages and 5) Consequences such as satisfaction, trust, productivity, work-family balance, and benefits for the organization, improving job attitudes.

The purpose of this study was to identify structural relationships between factors affecting domestic tourism intentions in Iran under COVID-19 conditions, taking into account the importance of behavioral intention in predicting behavior. Therefore, it adds to the emerging body of knowledge about travel intentions during the pandemic. Structural equation modelling was used to analyze 383 online questionnaires, which revealed a positive impact of “frequency of past travel” and a negative effect of “Covid-19 risk knowledge,” “perceived risk,” and “risk aversion attitudes” on “travel intentions.” Furthermore, “perceived risk” and “risk aversion attitudes” mediated the relationship between “frequency of past travel” and “Covid-19 risk knowledge” with “travel intentions.” Meanwhile, “socio-demographic variables” and “travel purposes” moderated the relationships between “risk aversion attitudes” and “travel intentions” and between “perceived risks” and “travel intentions.” The findings enable tourism policy-makers, marketers, and businesses to take purposeful measures to recover domestic tourism.

Nowadays innovation is one of the vital success factors of new SMEs. Venture capital can promote the innovation of investee firms. This paper aims to identify and prioritize factors affecting the innovation of investee firms. Initially, by reviewing the literature, 18 factors were extracted. Then by statistical analysis, six factors with less importance were removed. The 12 factors with more importance advanced to the final step to be prioritized by Fuzzy DEMATEL method. Results demonstrated that the most important factors are providing valuable information from the industry, cooperation and contact with the industry activists, and informing about the possible threats and opportunities. The findings of this paper provide key insight into alternative investment, which is a novel area in Iran’s emerging financial markets. In other words, it can support both sides of a venture capital investment process to know which factors are of more importance to boost the possibility of success.

Outsourcing of sports facilities is one of the most essential tasks that the Ministry of Sports and Youth of Iran has done to increase organizational productivity. Therefore, this study seeks to outline how outsourcing improves the performance of sports facilities. The present study was conducted with an exploratory research approach to development of outsourcing model. In total, 14 managers of sports facilities participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews. The results showed that by identifying the development factors, facilitators, and barriers to outsourcing sports facilities, important features of outsourcing sports facilities can be achieved. Outsourcing sports services and sports facilities was not done correctly and did not cause the better performance of sports facilities, and there are many obstacles in its implementation due to which sports facilities managers do not benefit from outsourcing. The proper implementation of outsourcing of sports facilities leads to greater customer satisfaction.